Wooden drinks cabinet for fireplace niche

[EdwardW]

This ingenious wooden drinks cabinet makes a feature of a hole in a wall left by an old electric heater. 

• The project
• More bar project inspiration
• How to build a bar

The project

I built this mini bar for a friend. The electric heater niche was empty, and it seemed like a great idea. 

The body is 19mm structural plywood, sanded and finished with wipe-on polyurethane. The face frame and the doors are made of some recycled Pacific Maple I had laying around the shop, finished with hardwax oil. The back mirror and the glass in the doors are acrylic.

The overall depth of the niche is 180mm. The cabinet effective depth is 150mm. The doors are inset into the face frame, which is 19mm thick. 

All the joinery of the box and the face frame is pocket holes, while the doors were made using a router and stile-and-rail bits.

 

I ordered the polished-brass snake hinges specially. The door handles are also polished brass. 

 

More bar project inspiration

Bunnings Workshop member diycollection built this stylish D.I.Y. drinks cabinet from a basic wooden cube and hairpin legs.

Workshop member Riley added interest to his recycled hardwood bar with a collectable coin feature finished with clear resin epoxy, and included a galvanised pipe as a footrest.

Workshop member Starkers_17 combined a love of timber and steel in this outdoor bar project with clever stool design.

How to build a bar

Fancy building your own pallet bar? Bunnings Workshop member Rob has taken inspiration from Marty's project and shows you how in this step-by-step guide: How to build a pallet bar.